Sign Folk

Haggai Osewe

I always enjoy a video with some signwriting, so I was chuffed to find this from Kenya, through Charlie, and thought I’d share. Alongside my discoveries in Cambodia it just goes to show that the art and craft is still alive and kicking in much of the world. It would be great to include some […]

17 Mar 2011

Change

“Change is inevitable – except from a vending machine.” Robert C. Gallagher Cambodia As some of you will have heard, things are changing in my life and, consequently, with the Ghostsigns Project. This coming Thursday I will be travelling to Cambodia to join my wife who is already there getting ready for our two year […]

13 Sep 2010

BBC Ghostsigns

I’ve just got round to posting the proper quality copies of the two biggest pieces of BBC coverage of the project.  These are the One Show piece with correctly synched audio (below) and, more recently, the piece on BBC Radio 4’s Making History program. In print, there was this in the Guardian.

12 Jul 2010

Annette Smith

On the back of my post about the interview in Bath for BBC Radio 4’s Making History program I have been contacted by Bath artist and photographer Annette Smith.  By pure coincidence she currently has an exhibition running until this weekend at the Octagon in Bath as part of the ‘Fringe Arts Bath’ festival. She […]

9 Jun 2010

BBC Radio Nottingham

This short piece was broadcast on BBC Radio Nottingham on the morning of 18th May 2010.  It features an interview with historyanorak and was accompanied by a photo feature on their website. Coming soon will be another piece on radio, this time BBC Radio 4 featuring an interview with me in Bath for the Making […]

4 Jun 2010

Preserve

Fischer Strube, Luzern Switzerland (Photo: Erik Wallace) While mine and the History of Advertising Trust’s efforts have focused on hand painted advertising from the UK and Ireland it’s always worth remembering that Ghostsigns are a global phenomenon. In fact there are others around the world attempting to capture them for posterity in much the same […]

1 May 2010

One Show & the Guardian

[Update: better quality video here.] Here’s the piece that was broadcast on the One Show, BBC1, on 12th April 2010. To see it full screen on youtube click here. On the same day, by pure coincidence, the Guardian did a write-up in their G2 section. Read it in full here or here.

25 Apr 2010

Tom Bland

In the course of researching and documenting ghostsigns from across the country I have come across many distinctive ways of interpreting the signs, via photographic means or in broader media such as paint and sculpture/models (see Martin Thompson, Stuart Free and Emmanuel Nouaillier for example). Recently I have discovered the work of photographer Tom Bland […]

19 Feb 2010

Liverpool Ghost Signs on TV

This was broadcast on ITV Granada on Sunday, 31st January and featured Caroline & Phil Bunford who have added their collection of signs from Liverpool to the archive.  This follows up the piece on the BBC Liverpool website. Well done Caroline, look out for more coverage of the project in the coming months. [Update: Liverpool […]

2 Feb 2010

Stuart Free Interview

The Independent on Sunday have an interview with Stuart Free, the artist who created this painting of the Donovan Bros sign in Spitalfields before it was repainted.  (My original post about Stuart has more commentary and he is also mentioned in the ‘Interpretations’ segment of my recent talk at Middlesex University.) Read the full interview […]

17 Jan 2010

100 Contributors

100 photographers have now added their pictures to the forthcoming archive using this form. The 100th person to do so was Terry Cliss, known as casillero on Flickr, and one of his images is this one for a fantastic sign in Frome. Contributors to date: addedentry akvinby7 Albert S. Bite Alex Dennis Alquin Antony J […]

11 Dec 2009

Charlton Signwriting

Some photos and film from a visit to Charlton to see Chris of Northern Star Creative at work on a sign for a garage. It was great to see him in action and to hear some of his stories from when he used to run a signwriting shop on the Woolwich Road. He’s writing these […]

4 Dec 2009

Londonist

I was interviewed by Jaz over at the Londonist blog a couple of weeks back and this was published on Monday.  It’s always nice to get some profile for the project, even nicer that this came as a result of other bloggers citing it in their earlier interviews for Londonist. Anyway, check it out here.

18 Nov 2009

Emmanuel Nouaillier Update

Just under a year ago I featured the work of Emmanuel Nouaillier whose artistic treatment of the ghostsigns in his native France is fascinating.  It’s worth having a read of this site to understand some of the meticulous technique that goes into producing his work. Emmanuel describes the final print output as, “a mix between sculpture, […]

14 Nov 2009

Concord Painting

The ever prolific Frank Jump who blogs on ghostsigns over in New York has uncovered a nice piece of history having been contacted by a relative of someone who painted this sign [update: link no longer available] over there. It turns out that the company that he worked for (Concord Painting) is still in business and […]

12 Nov 2009

Forms Received

Just a quick update on the progress of the archive. So far over 90 forms have been received from those who have been contributing to the Flickr group. Thank you all, the plan is for the online archive to be launched in January 2010. There’s still some way to go in order to ensure that […]

3 Nov 2009

Time Out Blog

I wrote a piece for the Time Out blog which covers a little of the personal journey I’ve been on over the last three years on the project.  Its interesting to reflect on how far things have come in such a short space of time, especially considering that I’ve also moved house, completed a masters […]

1 Jun 2009

Emmanuel Nouaillier

One of the best things that has happened since setting up this blog is people sending me ghost sign related materials from around the world. The most interesting of these are when the signs have been used as a springboard for artistic and other creative activities. Most recently I got a series of emails from […]

8 Dec 2008

Colossal Media Update

I’ve written lots about Colossal Media in the past but a visit to their website today revealed a whole load of new content including lots of videos, mainly time-lapses of their work being painted but also this new promotional trailer. Although it features some of their most recent work I still think the old one is […]

1 Dec 2008

Stuart Free

For my birthday earlier this week my girlfriend bought me a limited edition print from north London artist Stuart Free. It is a painting depicting the distinctive Donovan Bros. shopfront in Spitalfields which has always been one of my favourite sites in London. [Update here.] Stuart clearly produced this painting before the sign was recently […]

11 Sep 2008

Frank Jump Interview

Just came across this on youtube, an interview with Frank Jump about his work in New York. Great to see some of his pictures full size and to hear some of the background to his fascination with the Ghost Signs or Fading Ads. I still need to schedule my trip over there, everyone who comes […]

2 Jun 2008

John Henstock

I got in touch with John Henstock recently as he’d started uploading some of his pictures on Flickr. Here’s one example from Brixton for Our Sons Menswear (funny, I’d always read it as Dursons Menswear!). They interested me because of their very distinctive look and so I asked how he had achieved the effect. He […]

27 Mar 2008

Its All Art

‘Goods in the City’ by Keith J. Hampton Keith Hampton over at It’s All Art kindly sent me this example of some work he has produced inspired by the ghost signs found in Indianapolis, USA. When I first saw this one (there’s another called ‘Miami Alley’) I assumed it was a collage, either digital or […]

9 Mar 2008

Jerry Johnson

© Sign painted and photo taken by Jerry Johnson Frank Jump over in NYC has just posted a collection of ten outstanding images from the work of experience signwriter (or “wall dog” in USA) Jerry Johnson.  Some of these are genuine pieces of advertising and some, like the one pictured, are spoofs. The craftsmanship, or […]

23 Feb 2008